"How long have we been doing this?” sighs Michelle Rodriguez at the start of Fast & Furious, a question audiences may be asking themselves as burly baldie Vin Diesel reunites with bland blondie Paul Walker for a fourth helping of gas-guzzling auto-porn.
In truth, it’s been eight years since Diesel’s ex-con Dom first went up against Walker’s dogged cop Brian in The Fast And The Furious. Paul returned for 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious, while Vin popped up at the end of 2006’s otherwise negligible The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift.
But F&F marks their joint comeback to the franchise that made their names, with Jordana Brewster and Rodriguez also returning to the fold as their respective love interests Mia and Letty.
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That is the chief point of interest in Justin Lin’s film, which otherwise presents a carbon-copy of its predecessors’ slightly camp blend of taciturn machismo, sneering villainy and tyre-squealing, clutch-crunching mayhem.
Since the leads always played second fiddle to their four-wheeled co-stars, it feels odd to place such stock in them being back in the driving seat. It’s also something of a swizz, one of the original quartet making such a hasty exit in the first act it temporarily puts the entire movie in neutral.
This messy departure provides a convenient catalyst for what follows, Dominic and Brian reluctantly teaming up to bring down a shady drug lord using street racers to smuggle his heroin across the US-Mexican border.
In order to land a spot on his crew, Walker and Diesel compete in a free-for-all road race across LA that, an opening raid on a fuel-laden road train notwithstanding, gives the flick its most satisfying set-piece.
Alas, the car-nage that ensues is confined to a maze of underground tunnels, too dark and claustrophobic a setting to appreciate stunt scenes already made hard to follow by the epileptic editing.
Neil Smith
